How to Network on LinkedIn to ACTUALLY Get Replies

Read Time: 9 Minutes

It’s the day after I’ve reposted a job opening for an old colleague and my inbox is full of the same request: “Can you please refer me to this job”.

Most of these messages don’t get a reply. Only those with some sort of effort put into them get a response to the tune of “I don’t refer people that I haven’t worked with”.

This sounds harsh. And in some ways, it may be. But the truth is that this is a terrible way to try to get a job. The success rate of these messages is clearly so low that almost all of these messages look to be generated by either an LLM or the same generic copied and pasted message. Something mass-produced, not hand-crafted. 

One was even double-sent to me, 2 hours apart.

Through about 30 messages that day, only 1 person even had a chance of getting a referral this way.

What made this one person so different?

They had taken the time to form a relationship with me. This wasn’t their first message but it was the first time they had asked me for something. The first few conversations we had weren’t about getting anything from me. It was just a student reaching out to say that they liked my writing and thought it was cool that we had the same educational background (talking about Economics is still the way to my heart). They took the time to talk about specific things that I wrote about that resonated with them.

This is a key difference I never used to think about. 

There’s a huge difference between: 

“I love what you’re doing, it’s cool to see” 

And

“Your article on getting promoted taught me a lot about the manager/report relationship, thank you for writing it”.

Or, even better, taking action based on someone else's advice:

“Your article on getting promoted led me to talk to my manager about a promotion long before I would have and now I have a plan in place with them to work towards the next step of my career!”

In a world where resumes are increasingly created by the same few sources (LLMs and generic templates) standing out isn’t a matter of volume. It’s a matter of being unique and increasing quality instead of quantity. 

Being the 50th best option gets you to the same place as being the worst option, nowhere.

We’ve gotten so used to everything on the internet being free that we somehow think jobs also come this way. That a cold DM to a stranger is the ticket. Maybe this works once in a while. Mostly, it just destroys any chance of a relationship being built. It’s far too transactional and humans don’t like transactional, except for the sleazy ones.

So what’s the way to do this for the highest likelihood of success?

Start early. Really early. Like 3+ months before you need it early.

Isn’t that frustrating? Good thing most people won’t do it, which gives YOU an advantage if you do it. This is how people get ahead. It isn’t a secret, it’s just effort and a bit of foresight. Stop looking for secrets, this is the reality behind most success.

It’s obvious when you reach out to someone and need something. It comes across in your messages more than you think. You’re a flashing sign saying “I need something from you!!!”. So the way to avoid this is to not need anything when you first reach out. Just reach out as a human connecting to another human. Not a job seeker talking to a potential job treasure chest.

If you’re currently job searching and thinking “Well I’m screwed and it’s too late” that’s not true. There are ways to speed this up, but it’ll take considerably more effort. This is oddly a lot like dating. If you try to rush it, it usually fails for one reason or another. But if you put in effort and care, you can make it work. We’ll get to that later.

For those of you who don’t NEED something right away, here’s how I went about forming the relationships I have.

First, this isn’t about you at all. This is about the other person. Similar to the golden rule, we’ll treat others how we would like to be treated, but even better. This is about finding opportunities to genuinely connect with another human in a way that’s meaningful to you. It’s a lot like dating or making friends as an adult. Some of these relationships aren’t going to work out or will just fizzle out. That’s okay and is actually preferred. It means you’re taking some chances and not leaving opportunities on the table. Failure is just finding boundaries. You don’t want everyone to be a great match, otherwise they’re all just average. 

Similar to dating, there are two main strategies here: 

1. Go out there and see who you can talk to. Pick people based on a few superficial things and hope it works out. Sometimes it does. The internet makes this easier because you can often glean additional information about a person. People’s LinkedIn profiles are a great start - some people put a lot of info in there. They make it super easy to connect with them. They often have hobbies on their profiles alongside their work and education. 

   Use this to meaningfully connect with them. Most people would rather talk about their hobbies and interests than their work or schooling. 

2. Or, be the person people want to talk to. For the first few years, this was my strategy on LinkedIn and it worked! It still works quite well, but it’s also dependent on a lot of action from you, as well as taking a risk. It’s scarier to go to a bar alone hoping to meet someone than to go with friends and only say hi if someone catches your eye. This is the networking version of the bar scenario.

To use the first strategy, here’s what I suggest: 

1. Look for people who post regularly and have lower engagement (5 or fewer comments and 50 or fewer likes). Narrow this down to people that you actually want to get to know. It could be that they work at a company you respect, they have a job you’d like to know more about, or they did something else that you want to do, like a career transition. 

2. Start paying attention to their posts and contribute to them when you have something meaningful to say. This part is important. Don’t comment meaningless things on their posts. Summarizing what they said back to them is annoying. So is using an LLM to come up with some generic response. It’s more obvious than you think. These comments are junk and don’t build relationships. 

   Instead, respond with your genuine questions, opinions, or further information. Genuine questions should be researched for at least a few minutes by checking to see if they’ve answered this in a place they want you to see, like their featured section or blog. 

   If you do find an answer in this section, this is a huge bonus for you. You now get to boost their featured section (which is the most important thing to them, that’s why it’s featured). Go to their post and talk about how their blog/YouTube channel, etc. gave such a good answer. They’ll be happy for you doing what they would like to do themselves - make their favourite work more visible.

For opinions, think this through a bit. It’s very open-ended and being a smart ass doesn’t help you. If you disagree, disagree with the information and don’t attack the person. State it kindly with your reasons. Don’t be combative. One way I’ve seen this done well is as follows:

“I’d like to push back on this advice/opinion a bit. <Insert reason for pushback, preferably with more than just anecdotal evidence>. I realize experiences may vary so I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on this!”

This allows the author to genuinely consider your point and respond thoughtfully. They may stick to their point, which is easy for them to do because all you’ve asked is for them to consider your point. They can do that without changing their mind, which means you get a response from them instead of just a block/ignore. This is important given it’s the start of a relationship. Like all relationships, starting carefully is good. 

You don’t ask a date if they want kids 5 minutes into the first date, right?

After 5 or so comments on a person’s posts, they’re going to know who you are. Focusing on the engagement levels above, you’ve likely contributed to 20% or more of their meaningful engagement. Reaching out via a DM now is highly likely to get a response. You’re no longer a stranger, you’re the person that they see in the elevator regularly. You’re familiar and, if you’ve done this right, they appreciate you. You’ve started the relationship off in a state of giving. Now is the time to continue that while potentially making a small ask. 

In a DM, you can get to know them more. This can be coupled with asking a few small questions that take less than 5 minutes to answer. And, very importantly, that don’t require them to go outside the chat window. Don’t ask them to review your resume. That takes more than 5 minutes AND requires them to move outside the window.

You can instead ask a specific question such as: 

“How do you like to structure your resume with both work experience and interesting portfolio projects?” 

OR 

“Do you have a way of showing impact on big projects where you might not have found out the exact outcome?”

In an ideal world, these questions have some relevance to them. The above resume questions would be great to ask me, given my profile specifically states that I help with Data Analyst Resumes. Look at their profile to see what they likely enjoy talking about. If you’ve selected these people properly, these are also interests you have. You’re about to make a friend!

It’s now time for you to have a real, human conversation with them. This is where you get to start to be yourself, though still in a more professional sense. Don’t immediately act like you’re best friends - you’re not. But you can talk to them like you’ve worked together a bit. Ask questions about their career/work experience or anything else along those lines you’re interested in, as long as it isn’t too personal. Over time you’ll find your natural groove and can ask to hop on a call when it feels right. Or, for some people, that never needs to happen and the relationship can continue via DM. I have many of these types of friendships and I love them.

If, instead you opt for the second strategy for networking, this simply requires you to post on LinkedIn. Don’t overthink it, just start posting. Your first posts will be cringy and uncomfortable, they are for all of us. By your 50th post, you’ll feel comfortable, though you’ll still worry before hitting the post button. Or at least I still do. You’ll become a beacon for others to come to, though it will be slow at first. If you’re comfortable using this strategy, I suggest doing a bit of the first one alongside it at the same time.

And finally, for those of you who feel you don’t have a few months to do this, here’s what I suggest you do.

Provide high value to others directly.

To explain a bit. First, understand that if you need to speed things up, you still need to make the same impression, so you have to put in more effort. I’d hazard a guess at 5-10x more effort. But honestly, the path above isn’t that hard, so this isn’t anything insane. It just means the time you’d spend getting to know a person via comments will all be put into a few DMs. 

You want to get to know the person and their interests as best you can, so you’ll want to treat them like a company you want to work at. Read everything you can find about their career and professional interests. Look for the things they seem to enjoy talking about and note them. Bonus points if you can relate that to your interests. 

And then find a way to provide value to them. If they love learning about finance and enjoy listening to podcasts, send them a great episode in your first message and EXPLAIN why you’ve done it. You’re going to face some rejection here, but that’s part of the price you pay for speeding this up. You don’t organically build the relationship so you need to connect on something stronger. 

But a warning here, keep it professional. Don’t go looking them up on Facebook and adding them, or trying to talk to their family and friends to get into their life. That’s weird and creepy and is a guaranteed way to ensure they’ll block you. Don’t do it.

That’s honestly it. That’s all I’ve done these past 5 years and I’ve met some incredible people. Including people I would never meet in real life, both due to location and status. Some of the people I got to for career advice and hard questions are people I’ve met through LinkedIn.

This has changed my life and I hope it does the same for you.

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Whenever you’re ready, here are 2 ways I can help you:

1. Data Analyst Launchpad - My course on how to build a resume and cover letter that gets results. I share 7 years of data analyst experience, including interviewing and hiring for most of 2023.

2. A Coaching Call - If you’re struggling with applications or want to level up your skills, I’ll give you a plan to get there and the resources that I’ve used to get there myself. If you’re unsure if I can help, shoot me a message and I’ll provide any guidance I can right then and there, no cost to you!